Of Moths, Electrics, And A Cat Called Rocky
by SilverHeart09
Summary: ONE SHOT. Pepper has a bit of an electrical issue at a ridiculously early time in the morning and resorts to calling the only person she knows who's stupid enough to still be awake. Please review!.


_I know I know, I should probably be updating the other stories I've been neglecting but this was a Plot Bunny eating my brain and it had to be written right this very second, it couldn't wait till the morning. Stupid bunnies ¬.¬_

_Please review! By the way, I know nothing about electrics, at all. You have been warned._

_And Pepper's been working for Tony for about… let's say 4 years, so they know each other quite well._

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><p>Pepper yawned and stretched, hastily grabbing her laptop when it tilted dangerously to one side and threatened to fall off her sofa. Her cat, which had been quite happily chilling out on her legs, jumped up when Pepper moved and made itself comfortable again on her knees. Pepper rubbed her eyes and stared blearily at the email she was composing to the CEO of some company somewhere in New York. She sighed, finding that her boss's distain for other companies other than his own was beginning to rub off on her, although in fairness this particular company was pretty rubbish, or at least that's what Tony Stark had told her on several occasions.<p>

'_They never come to meetings prepared, like ever, and the only thing they've invented is a ladder for helping moths get out of the bath! I mean come on!' _

Pepper smiled despite herself, she'd thought Tony had been joking until he actually showed her said ladder. Needless to say, if Tony Stark says the company is rubbish, chances are the company is rubbish.

Pepper quickly sent the email and checked the clock, eyes almost popping out of their sockets when she saw it was just after two. Her cat contemplated her from its position on her legs, almost daring her to even think about moving. Pepper stroked the cat's head and closed her laptop, shoving it back in its case by the side of the sofa. She was about to budge the cat off when…

… the lights went out.

'Crap,' Pepper muttered. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and used it as a torch to manoeuvre the cat off her legs and make her way to the curtains. The lights were still on in the street outside so Pepper immediately assumed (like you do when it's ridiculously early, you're half asleep and aren't really sure what's going on) that someone was playing a joke on her. Probably her boss.

'Tony?' she called into the darkness. 'Is that you? Haha very funny, now can you turn the lights on please?'

Still nothing, the lights remained stubbornly off.

'Great,' Pepper muttered. 'Just what I need.'

She tried to think logically, _what are my options here? _She could only think of one, which was try to go to bed in the pitch black, since no engineer would be sane enough to come out in the middle of the night to fix her electrics, the only downside being she had to leave early in the morning to make sure Tony got to his nine am meeting on time for a change, and would be working late to make sure Tony got the R&D updates by the afternoon so he could go over them and get them back to her by the evening… by which time it would also be too late to have an engineer come over.

_Shit._

Pepper's thought about sane engineers had immediately made her think about her idiotic boss, who she had once caught setting up a nuclear fusion reactor in the basement, she was confident that if people knew Tony like she did, they wouldn't call him a genius, they'd call him insane. However, he was her only option right now.

_No, don't call him, he'll probably be asleep, like you should be!_

Pepper padded up and down the length of her living room for a few minutes, trying to think of an alternative plan to letting her boss into her home in the middle of the night.

_Nope, there isn't one. _Pepper chewed the inside of her cheek. _Okay, I'll call JARVIS and ask if Tony's still awake, if he isn't which he bloody well should be, I'll go to bed and wait till the day after tomorrow to get an engineer out._

Pepper pulled her phone out of her pocket and hit the speed-dial to Tony's ridiculously massive Malibu mansion. If Tony was asleep JARVIS would answer on the first ring and if he wasn't he probably wouldn't bother answering the phone in which case it would go to voicemail and JARVIS would answer anyway.

'_Hello?'_

'Tony! Why aren't you asleep!'

'_You're seriously calling me at two in the morning to yell at me for not being asleep? In fact question right back at you! Why aren't _you _asleep?'_

'Because… I need your help.'

Pepper could almost hear the grin in his voice. _'Whatever you need, Potts.'_

'The lights in my house have gone out, all of them and I can't get an engineer out till the day after tomorrow.'

'_Ah, so you need my expertise in fixing the electrics?'_

'Yes please Mr Stark.'

'_Pepper, it is two o'clock in the morning, call me Tony, and I'll be right there.'_

xXxXxXx

When Pepper answered the door ten minutes later she crossed her arms and glared at her boss.

'Good morning to you too, Pepper,' Tony said, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

'You were asleep you fibber,' Pepper said, pointing a long manicured nail at him.

'Well yeah, it was two o'clock and you'd been yelling at me to go to bed early all evening, so yes; I was asleep. How did you even know?'

In response, Pepper pointed at his hair, which was not so artfully mussed up as actual bed head.

Tony grinned lopsidedly. 'I bet even you get bed head, Peps.'

Pepper stepped back to let him in, saying: 'I thought JARVIS answered if you were asleep?'

'JARVIS likes you more than me,' Tony pouted. 'He woke me up, he was worried there was something majorly wrong for you to be calling in the middle of the night.'

Pepper smiled. 'I don't keep shouting at him for being annoying every ten minutes.'

'True…' Tony smiled. 'So, where're the electrics?'

'Here, under the stairs,' Pepper said, shining the torch she'd found in her kitchen drawer at the white panel next to the Christmas decorations. While Tony got down on his knees and started poking around at the wires, Pepper made them both coffee and Tony was introduced to Pepper's cat, Rocky, who decided to jump on his head, intrigued by its fluffiness, making him yelp. After Rocky had apologised by licking his hand, Tony finally found the cause of the problem.

'This wire is old, really old, like- about a billion years old,' Tony informed her, holding up the offending wire. 'See the ends? Where the casing has pealed away from the wires? It looks like it shorted out and took the circuit board with it. Luckily I brought some spares,' Tony pulled a long green wire out of his pocket and began installing it into the mess he'd made out of Pepper's electrics. Wires and random bits of metal were around him in a circle, but at least it was, for a change, an organised circle.

Tony finished reassembling everything and screwed the panel back on, standing up and turning the hallway light on. Bright light erupted from the bulbs and made them both wince and cover their eyes.

'There, all done,' Tony said. 'That's Tony Stark: 1 Pepper's electrics: 0.'

Pepper smiled. 'Thanks Tony, and sorry for waking you up.'

'No problem, I guess I just didn't like the thought of you being stuck in the dark on her own, even with fluffy here,' he said, stroking Rocky's head. 'Why is he called Rocky anyway?'

Pepper grimaced. 'I got him a few years ago, a friend called saying her cat had had kittens if I wanted one, I was watching _The Rocky Horror Picture Show _with my sister, plus, he is ginger.'

They both looked down at the cat, who blinked at them indifferently and starting washing itself.

Pepper handed Tony his jacket. 'Thanks,' she said again. 'I'll see you later this morning then.'

Tony pulled it on. 'Bright and early for that nine am meeting, although if I fall asleep in it I'm blaming it on you.'

'Ah but that's the question, is it my fault or is it just Clarkson's really dull voice?'

Tony laughed. 'I guess we'll never know, well, bye, Peps.'

There then followed an awkward pause where Pepper didn't really want to shake his hand because he _was _in her house in the middle of the night so formality was a bit stupid, and Tony wasn't sure whether to hug her or not because it didn't know if she'd find it a bit awkward.

In fact the pause got so awkward that they both laughed and Tony decided to hug her anyway and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

'Bye, Peps!' he called out the door on the way to the supercar he had casually parked in front of her drive.

Pepper waved and waited till he'd driven out of her road before closing the door and raising a hand to her face to gently touch the spot where he'd kissed her. It felt holt like fire but also… nice? Was that the word?

Pepper looked at Rocky who blinked at her.

'Oh shush you,' she said, turning the light off and going to bed.

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><p><em>Please review! :D Reviews are like chocolate, they make me happy.<em>

_And I proof-read this like 5 times but it is midnight so any mistakes are mine, all mine, and no you can't have any. _


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